Tiffany Selton - Dutch Oven Cookbook Easy, Flavorful Recipes for Cooking With Your Dutch Oven

Dutch ovens have been around for so long in so many kitchens that they might seem too old-fashioned for todays cook. In many peoples minds, the Dutch oven is a quaint relic from more traditional times. But for many cooks, along with a desire to cook healthy meals at home there is a desire to simplify their cooking and their kitchens. Perhaps as a backlash to the multitude of products available, the modern kitchen is the minimal kitchen, where less is more. Dutch ovens then become invaluable to todays cook. When you can use one pot to make an entire meal, dinner doesnt seem like such an onerous task.

In the broadest terms, a Dutch oven is a heavy pot with short handles and a lid which can be used both on the stove top and in the oven. Although they can be made from different materials, the most popular Dutch ovens are made from cast ironthat is, iron cast in dry sand molds. Iron is an extremely dense metal, slow to heat up, but also slow to let heat go. This quality helps reduce the temperature fluctuations when compared to other cookware. While uncoated cast iron ovens and camp ovens require seasoning before use and must be hand-washed, more modern enameled cast iron Dutch ovens are rustproof, dishwasher safe, and require less maintenance. By nature, their smooth surface is stick-resistant and they can be used right away, with no seasoning needed.

Dutch oven can produce some relatively quick weeknight meals, but it truly excels in recipes that call for long, slow cooking, like soups, stews, and braises. The density of cast iron keeps the temperature of these dishes constant with little to no attention, whether youre cooking on the stovetop or in the oven. While it may take an hour or more for a dish to cook in Dutch oven, after the initial prep work you can ignore it for long periods of time and still end up with fantastically flavored meals. With some care it cleans up easily, and since many meals can be cooked start to finish in one Dutch oven, youre not left with a sink full of dishes after dinner.

Dutch ovens come in sizes from 1 cup (Le Creuset sells tiny individual pots made just like their big brothers) up to a 15-quart goose pot that is not only large enough to cook a goose, but also to bathe a small child. Realistically, though, most cooks consider sizes between 2 quarts and 7 quarts, with the 5- to 6-quart sizes being the most popular.

When youre cooking for two, it might seem that you want to stick with the smaller sizes (2 quarts to 3 quarts), and in some cases these smaller sizes are ideal. However, for many recipes, a larger size is betterfor instance, you cant cook pasta for two in a 2-quart pot. I tested the recipes in the book using a 5-quart and a 6-quart Dutch oven, but with very few exceptions, the dishes will turn out fine in any size pot from 3.5 quarts up to 6 quarts.